Human Rights

Soccer referee sidelined for wearing hijab

MONTREAL — A former Lac St. Louis soccer referee is blowing the whistle on rules she said prevent her from practising her religion. Sarah Benkirane, 15, was told after two years of refereeing for the soccer association that she was out of a job, after a complaint surfaced over her […]

Yogyakarta Ruler’s Tolerance an Example for Indonesia

Jakarta – In Yogyakarta, the cultural centre of the island of Java in Indonesia, the governor, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, has set an interesting precedent by refusing to ban the Ahmadiyah religious group. The group was founded by a 19th century Indian religious leader, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed he was the promised Messiah foretold […]

Muslim hearings recall my life in internment camp

Editor’s note: Rep. Michael Honda, D-California, is senior Democratic whip and a member of House Budget and Appropriations Committees. (CNN) — Who would have thought that my early childhood experience in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II would offer such useful insight, 65 years later, in determining the […]

Deportation monitors to watch but not tell

by Dale Bechtel, swissinfo.ch The authorities have placed strict conditions on an agreement governing the independent monitoring of forced deportations of rejected asylum seekers. Monitors deployed by the Federation of Protestant Churches in a six-month trial period starting in July will not be allowed to go public with their reports. […]

Cleric of Hate sent to die behind bars

It is likely the only common ground they will ever have, but terrorism analysts and supporters of militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir do agree on one thing  — the 15-year jail term that he received on Thursday means he will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. The conclusion […]

Mediterranean route favoured by migrants

Migrants and the criminal organisations that exploit them have turned their attention to the Central Mediterranean route after the deployment of EU personnel to the Greek-Turkish border has rendered that path into Europe more secure, according to a senior official of the EU’s boarder agency. Gil Arias Fernandes, the deputy […]

Pakistan: State of Fatwas – No human Rights: Extremists openly plan to kill hundreds of Ahmadis–government turns a blind eye

Kāfir Factory – Infidel Factory Last year on Friday, 28th May 2010, the world saw a massacre of innocent Ahmadis in Lahore, Pakistan. A day after a journalist of BBC Urdu, Mohammad Hanif, wrote an article titled “Kafir Factor – Infidel Factory”. In this article he has shown a picture of Pakistani societies […]

Moderate Muslim professor murdered

Moscow A Muslim university professor who criticized radical Islamists was shot dead in Dagestan, officials said Wednesday. Maksud Sadikov, 48, and his nephew were gunned down in the yard of his home in the regional capital of Makhachkala late Tuesday. “This is not only a murder, it is a challenge […]